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How to: Fix Battery Life

droidfan1

Android Enthusiast
Aug 2, 2010
371
74
Really simple fix here. No matter what I did (disabling LTE, etc) my battery life was atrocious.

Dead in 7-8 hours, and that is with the extended battery!!

Easy fix? Turn Wi-Fi ON. Seriously. Just turn Wi-Fi on and leave it on.

For whatever reason, this works. It's been 6 hours, and my battery is at 64%. Instead of 10% or less.

Thank me if it helps you. If it doesn't, well, it worked for me!

EDIT: Another thing to try: App called Juice Defender. Works great.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.latedroid.juicedefender

Download it here. Use either Balanced, or Aggressive (I use aggressive).

Really helps battery life if you are feeling upset about the Gnex's poor battery life. (For some).
 
Really simple fix here. No matter what I did (disabling LTE, etc) my battery life was atrocious.

Dead in 7-8 hours, and that is with the extended battery!!

Easy fix? Turn Wi-Fi ON. Seriously. Just turn Wi-Fi on and leave it on.

For whatever reason, this works. It's been 6 hours, and my battery is at 64%. Instead of 10% or less.

Thank me if it helps you. If it doesn't, well, it worked for me!

So are you saying just turn it on even if not using Wifi or are you saying use Wifi when ever you can?
 
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So are you saying just turn it on even if not using Wifi or are you saying use Wifi when ever you can?

Just turn it on. Leave it on. For whatever reason this increases my battery life so much.

On my bionic that I used to have, no wifi - 24hours of battery +
with wifi, only 6 hours. For whatever reason, the galaxy nexus is opposite for me. I get lots of battery by just leaving the wifi on. No idea why, but it works so I'm not arguing!
 
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How many areas are you in and connected to wifi? I know I use a lot less on wifi as well, but then I'm also either at work where I have it connected, or home where I have it connected too. That only leaves a half hour each way to and from work, that I'm on network data instead.

Interested/curious to know if you're getting better life just by having it switched on, but never actually connected to wifi throughout the day.

(personally, I get about 10 hours anyway on a regular battery so I'm more curious than anything just because.)
 
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This works for me as well because I live in a fringe area for 3G/4G, I had to get a Network extender because even my 1x signal is pretty weak. So pretty much, data at home is through wifi.

I'm getting really good battery life now that I have a custom ROM and more importantly a custom kernel that allows underclocking/undervolting the CPU when the device is idle.
 
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I'm noticing this too. With WiFi on, 3G only mode, mine easily goes 12 hours and still has +50% left. The LG Vortex I used before was similar and it lasted longer with WiFi on. But I made sure to set the WiFi sleep policy to screen off, so it doesn't always search for WiFi signal when it's on stand by.

To the contrary of what people say, keeping WiFi on seems to help with battery life. It might be device specific, so I can't speak for other phones though. Another tip is I deleted facebook, google+ apps and it seems to improve battery noticeably, more than 30% better. ICS browser is very nice, so I don't really need apps for SNS.
 
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Really simple fix here. No matter what I did (disabling LTE, etc) my battery life was atrocious.

Dead in 7-8 hours, and that is with the extended battery!!

Easy fix? Turn Wi-Fi ON. Seriously. Just turn Wi-Fi on and leave it on.

For whatever reason, this works. It's been 6 hours, and my battery is at 64%. Instead of 10% or less.

Thank me if it helps you. If it doesn't, well, it worked for me!

I got gps on, 4G on , brightness at 50%, and after 8 hours of light used[google maps, few phone calls, checking facebook], it's still at 60%, I must be doing something right.... Oh I'm only running one widget, beautiful widget. I would run more but I got so many apps, I got no room. No, I don't like stacking them one on top of another. No I did not do any battery calibration, just charge and go from day one, never let it drained once.
 
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How do you change the scan for WiFi? I dont see it in the options

Believe it is in the build.prop or Root Tools app (if you are rooted).

Thanks, droidfan1. Oddly...seems to be working for me, as well. 6 hours 38 minutes on battery and I'm at 68% charged. For me? Huge difference.

No problem! It really works lol.
 
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I don't quite understand why this works and there is no guarantee other phones will see similar gain. But this seems to be working for my previous LG, Samsung phones and it's much more noticeable in Nexus for some reason. Hopefully it doesn't go away with future updates.

To get best battery life out of Nexus, I suggest keeping it in 3G mode with WiFi on, sleep policy set to screen off. Set brightness below 50%, use LTE only when needed and minimize number of apps syncing frequently in background.
 
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I don't quite understand why this works and there is no guarantee other phones will see similar gain. But this seems to be working for my previous LG, Samsung phones but it's much more noticeable in Nexus for some reason. Hopefully it doesn't go away with future updates.

To get best battery life out of Nexus, I suggest keeping it in 3G mode with WiFi on, sleep policy set to screen off. Set brightness below 50%, use LTE only when needed and minimize number of apps syncing frequently in background.

I would suggest none of that, and I get great battery life. The only thing I leave off i bluetooth, and I only turn it on in the car. Just my experience through MANY android devices and especially this one!
 
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I don't quite understand why this works and there is no guarantee other phones will see similar gain. But this seems to be working for my previous LG, Samsung phones and it's much more noticeable in Nexus for some reason. Hopefully it doesn't go away with future updates.

To get best battery life out of Nexus, I suggest keeping it in 3G mode with WiFi on, sleep policy set to screen off. Set brightness below 50%, use LTE only when needed and minimize number of apps syncing frequently in background.

Conformed. I use very similar settings.:)
 
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